Tracey shines as claim first IFC Straffan win
The Auld Shebeen Athy IFC, group C
Straffan 3-9
Ellistown 2-7
Straffan held off Ellistown to secure their first Intermediate Championship win since their promotion from the JFC.
It was a dream start to the game for the IFC newcomers as they roared into an eight-point lead in as many minutes.
A fine Ruairí Power point was the first score of the game after a couple of minutes.
Straffan hit the net on the five-minute mark as Andy O’Neill was the first to react to a shot at the posts that dropped well short. O’Neill gathered possession and fired his effort off the inside of the post and in.
One of Straffan’s best players on the evening was undoubtedly midfielder John Tracey.
Tracey got the first of his four points from play just after the goal with an excellent point from range.
A high ball would once again be the undoing of the Ellistown backline as Aaron Kiernan sent the ball in towards Austin Allen. Allen rose to contest the ball alongside Ellistown ‘keeper Oran Donnelly, but the full-forward got the all important touch to take it past the rising goalkeeper.
Ellistown would respond with a goal of their own and their first score of the game after 13 minutes.
Conor Lindy, who operated as a full-forward in this game, off-loaded to Tadhg Watson who smashed his effort into the back of the net to make it 2-2 to 1-0.
Ellistown looked consistently disjointed in the opening minutes as they received mixed messages from the various members of their sideline. One shouted ‘sit in’ and the other said ‘push up’ and it often resulted in the trailing side doing neither.
Nonetheless, after they abandoned their plan to sit back early on they kicked themselves back into this fixture with three of the next four points of the game.
The game sat at 2-4 to 1-4 on 30 minutes and after a poor showing in large parts, Ellistown found themselves just three points adrift just before the break.
However, there was still time for more and after a fine save from Ellistown goalkeeper Donnelly, Straffan’s Lee Donohue would be the first to react and poked home to send the sides in 3-4 to 1-4 at half-time.
The story of the second half was wastefulness from Ellistown.
The trailing side had the lion’s share of the possession in the second 30 minutes but fell well short of replicating their opponents' clinical attacking play.
Straffan seemed happy enough to absorb pressure from their opponents as they knocked over the occasional score on the counter-attack.
With seven minutes remaining, the teams sat no closer to one another than they were at half-time at 3-7 to 1-7. But there was still time for some drama when substitute Tom Waters was brought down in the box.
Tadhg Watson stepped up and sent his penalty high into the net, giving Matthew Duggan no chance and breathing life into Ellistown hopes.
Straffan remained cool in the home stretch and responded to the penalty through Aaron Kiernan with a super score.
Straffan held on to secure the win and an impressive one too, while Ellistown were left to rue second half missed chances.
Scorers: Straffan, Lee Donohue 1-1, Austin Allen 1-1, John Tracey 0-4, Andy O'Neill 1-0, Ruairí Power 0-1, Brian Tracey 0-1, Aaron Kiernan 0-1.
Ellistown, Tadhg Watson 2-2 (1-0 penalty, 0-1 frees), Eoin O'Loughlin 0-2, Tom Waters 0-1, Pat Martin 0-1, Andy O'Neill 0-1.
STRAFFAN: Matthew Duggan; Mike Tracey, Niall Devane, Alan Byrne; Rory Byrne, Cian Gaynor, Liam O'Donovan; Tom Donovan, John Tracey; Lee Donohue, Brian Tracey, Aaron Kiernan; Ruairí Power, Austin Allen, Andy O'Neill. Subs: Mikey Quinn for Liam O'Donovan (45 minutes), Declan Reilly for Ruairí Power (47 minutes).
ELLISTOWN: Oran Donnelly; Sean Lindy, Darragh Watson, Michael Kelly; James Neilson, Eoin O'Loughlin, Pat Martin; Conor Lindy, Max Lennox; Dean Frahill, Tadhg Watson, Ciaran Lindy; David Dunne, Andrew McLoughlin, Andy O'Neill. Subs: Tom Waters for David Dunne (21 minutes), Kevin Martin for Michael Kelly (36 minutes), Conor O'Loughlin for Eoin O'Loughlin (36 minutes), Brian Tyrell for Andy O'Neill (49 minutes).
Referee: Henry Barrett